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A review by bribreez
Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
4⭐️
Back in Rome, Kentucky, the Walker siblings once again bringing warmth and comfort from their stories, but this time focusing on the eldest sister, Emily Walker. Emily was the one who always took matters into her own hands. In some ways, due to Emily’s strict rules and taking on many responsibilities, some if not most people in town saw her as cold. Emily was just someone who liked to take control of things that she saw needed fixing. When it came to work as a second grade teacher, Emily loved her job, but it also brought her face to face with her longtime nemesis, Jackson Bennett. Jackson or more called as, Jack, was the perfect gentleman, well loved by others, and an amazing teacher, except his nemesis, Emily had never liked him ever since they were in college together. Once again in the small town of, Rome, Kentucky, Sarah Adams writes a dislike to love romance between two nemesis’s who are also kind of feuding second grade teachers with the occasional prank, fun loving characters, a handsome glasses wearing MMC who secretly wants his nemesis in a way the reveals such long held feelings.
Back in Rome, Kentucky, the Walker siblings once again bringing warmth and comfort from their stories, but this time focusing on the eldest sister, Emily Walker. Emily was the one who always took matters into her own hands. In some ways, due to Emily’s strict rules and taking on many responsibilities, some if not most people in town saw her as cold. Emily was just someone who liked to take control of things that she saw needed fixing. When it came to work as a second grade teacher, Emily loved her job, but it also brought her face to face with her longtime nemesis, Jackson Bennett. Jackson or more called as, Jack, was the perfect gentleman, well loved by others, and an amazing teacher, except his nemesis, Emily had never liked him ever since they were in college together. Once again in the small town of, Rome, Kentucky, Sarah Adams writes a dislike to love romance between two nemesis’s who are also kind of feuding second grade teachers with the occasional prank, fun loving characters, a handsome glasses wearing MMC who secretly wants his nemesis in a way the reveals such long held feelings.
I was in the mood for an easy going romance with that had a bit of depth, humor, loving characters, and that’s exactly what I got with this book. Admittedly, in the beginning it took me a bit to really get into the mindset of both Emily and Jack, but after a while I started to feel more comfortable with them. Like any book, it takes a bit to get into the groove of the story, but little by little I found myself enjoying parts of the story and Emily and Jack as well. I felt like Emily was a bit misunderstood in the way she approached things, and people saw her controlling tendencies as being superior to others when that wasn’t the truth. Jack on the other hand was clearly loved by everyone (except for Emily) but he also had his own personal issues he kept hidden namely those involving his family background. Both, Emily and Jack took a bit of time for me to get to know, but once I got past the beginning half, and moved into the middle portion of the story, I started to like them a bit more and really liked their dynamic/ banter.
This was a cute, sweet book and Sarah Adams illustrated Emily and Jack’s story going from nemesis’s to friends to lovers. While through out the years those two didn’t like each other, I wouldn’t necessarily classify this story as, “enemies to lovers”, so it’s more appropriate to say nemesis’s since they actually referred to each other as that. While I enjoyed aspects of this story, I do think that maybe this fell under the, “right book, wrong time” type of category. Not sure if it was just me that I wasn’t fully connected or maybe I’m nearing a reading slump, but I wasn’t as enthusiastic as I had hoped before reading. Regardless of the slight bump in how I felt after reading this book, I still think it was a good story with lovable characters and of course, it was great seeing familiar faces such as, Annie, Will, Amelia, and Noah! I have a feeling maybeeee this series will continue with Madison (Emily’s sister) and James (Noah’s best friend) since there were some hints surrounding them throughout this book. From seeing Jack and Emily go from nemesis in college to being teachers at the same school, there was always that underlying feeling that they shared an attraction and understanding for each other. I would like to read this book again at another time when I’m in the right headspace and hopefully I’ll be obsessed with Jack and Emily as I had originally hoped. Big takeaways from this book was that it was cute, sweet, loved the banter, seeing the open communication between Emily and Jack and of course, the romance that grew over the course of this book.